Nickerson, who posted an amazing record of 32-1 in the regular season, was introduced to 16,394 fans inside the Ford Center and millions more as his championship bout with defending champion Joe Dubuque of Indiana was televised live on ESPN. With the crowd on his side hoping for an upset, inexperienced played a factor as Dubuque pulled off the victory, earning his second national title at 125 pounds.

After a minute and 30 seconds of feeling each other out, Dubuque went on the offensive, scoring a takedown. Nickerson quickly made his escape and went into the second period trailing by one point. With Dubuque choosing to start down, the Indiana fifth-year senior scored an escape and added a takedown with seven seconds left to widen his lead to 5-1 with one period of wrestling remaining. Nickerson scored a point for escaping after starting the last period in the down position but Dubuque scored another takedown to make the score 7-3. Nickerson added a late escape but couldn’t find the energy to muster a late offensive charge, falling by a final score of 8-3 after Dubuque racked up 2:03 in riding time.

Despite the loss, Nickerson proved to the nation that he was for real. Even Dubuque had praise for the first-ever five-time New York State champion.

“He’s going to be a great one,” Dubuque said. “I think he was a little tense and nervous. I expect him to be in the finals four times before the end of his career.”

Manotti wrestled in the morning session and cemented his place among Cornell’s all-time greatest after finishing third in the 157-pound bracket. After losing his first match of the tournament to Oregon State’s Tony Hook, Manotti tore through the consolation bracket, destroying everyone in his path. Manotti went on to win third place by defeating the tournament’s No. 9, 8, 4, 3 and 1 seeds.

He advanced to the third-place match by defeating No. 9 Joe Johnston of Iowa. After no scoring in the first period, Manotti scored takedowns in the second and third periods en route to a 6-0 victory. Cornell’s second-ever four-time All-American then faced the tournament’s top seed, Iowa State’s Trent Paulson, defeating him 8-2. He recorded takedowns in every period, including two impressive double-leg takedowns in the first and second. Manotti was announced over the loud speaker for his outstanding accomplishment of wrestling back through the consolation bracket, earning a standing ovation from the Oklahoma City crowd.

Rinaldi finished fourth in the nation after beating Oklahoma’s Joel Flaggert, 5-4, and falling to Nebraska’s B.J. Padden, 5-3, in the third-place match. Rinaldi recorded a three-point near fall in the second period to defeat Flaggert. Padden racked up 2:55 seconds of riding time against Rinaldi while recording two takedowns in the victory. Rinaldi will return next year in hopes of a national title in his final season in a Red singlet.

Mazzurco lost twice in his final day of competition, earning sixth place after falling to Illinois’ Peter Friedl, 7-5, and Arizona State’s C.B. Dollaway, 6-1. Mazzurco and Friedl wrestled even through two periods. Tied at four entering the third, Friedl scored a takedown with 1:17 left to secure the victory. He was awarded an extra point for posting a riding time advantage of 1:22. Mazzurco then faced Dollaway, surrendering a takedown with 50 seconds left in the second period. Dollaway escaped to start the third and added another takedown as Mazzurco tried to shoot repeatedly as Dollaway had locked up riding time in the bout. Mazzurco ends his career for the Red as a two-time All-American.

Cornell finished fifth behind Oklahoma State, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Iowa. The only Ivy Leaguer to win an individual title was Matt Valenti of Penn in the 133-pound bracket.

In the end, 330 wrestlers entered the tournament and Cornell wrestlers took home four of the 80 All-American spots.

The Red will look to add another top-5 finish next year at the 77th NCAA wrestling national championships at the Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich.

Related

ByMarch 27, 2006

U.S. Airways has announced that it is temporarily cutting flights out of Ithaca and will no longer be flying to Pittsburgh, effective March 31 to June 6.

The Associated Press quoted a U.S. Airways spokesperson saying that “the markets were not supporting the service.”

Flights had resumed from Ithaca to Pittsburgh last November.

According to a press release from the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, the Pittsburgh flights filled only 9 out of 37 available seats.

U.S. Airways also announced that it would cut flights to Pittsburgh from out of Binghamton and Elmira starting April 23.

It is another blow to the Ithaca Tompkins Regional Airport, as it struggles to expand service despite the hard times that have befallen airlines and the added competition from generally cheaper flights out of Binghamton, Elmira and Syracuse.

Last summer, the airport received a $500,000 grant from the federal government to improve service and lower prices.

U.S. Airways will continue to have 11 flights to Philadelphia and La Guardia in New York City. In addition, Northwest provides two daily flights to Detroit.
Archived article by Sun Staff

ByMarch 27, 2006

A Cornell tradition more than one hundred years in the making, the event now known as Dragon Day originated in 1901 when a prankster by the name of Willard Straight 1901 instituted a College of Architecture Day to foster unity and pride within the college.

Nowadays, Dragon Day usually falls on the Thursday or Friday before the beginning of Spring Break in March. After first-year architecture students put the finishing touches on the dragon they have spent the last week building, they march the machee-monster down East Avenue, past the Engineering Quad, and onto the Arts Quad, where it meets its end in a controlled fire. However, the Dragon Day Cornell students in 2005 know and love might barely be recognized by Willard Straight and his peers of years past.

Dragon Day “started off and for a very long time was a purely student activity, much more on the order of a student prank,” recalled Prof. Arthur Ovaska ’73, assistant chair of the architecture department.

Since its inception, College of Architecture Day has always fallen around St. Patrick’s Day because St. Patrick is commonly thought of as the “patron-saint of architecture,” according to Ovaska.

Modern St. Patrick’s Day commemorates, among other things, the day St. Patrick rid Ireland of its snakes. In keeping with this legend, Cornell architects have for decades built a giant green dragon in mid-March and paraded it around campus, often scaring more than just snakes out of its path. For many years, College of Architecture Day provided a pretext for unruly students to paint Ezra Cornell’s Arts Quad statue – and other campus landmarks – the customary St. Patrick’s Day green.

Kent Hubbell ’67, who has experienced Dragon Day both as an architecture student and in his current post as dean of students, describes the day as “a rite of passage” for architecture students.

The modern version of Dragon Day emerged some time in the 1950s, when the giant dragon float planned and built by first year “archies” became a more central part of the Architecture Day celebration. As far back as 1952, the dragon tore through the campus, disturbing classes in Goldwin Smith Hall and causing commotion in the central campus libraries. The administration tried to curtail the rowdiness later in the 1950s, but if successful at all, its success was certainly short-lived.

In 1961, for instance, “the arts college reported that students were breaking windows in Goldwin Smith Hall, turning animals loose, and painting professors and students in classes,” The Sun reported that year. “At noon there was a fight on the Arts Quad when a student who was dressed for an interview was painted by a group of architects. In the afternoon, students attempted to paint an elderly man against his will.”

Five years later, the St. Patrick’s Day debauchery reached an extreme when architects released a squealing pig, painted green an hour earlier, into the Ivy Room in the Straight, starting a food fight. One student hit a police officer with a plate of mashed potatoes while others released the emergency brake on a police patrol car and sent it rolling down a campus hill.

The students gave the campus a much-needed respite from the Dragon Day shenanigans in 1968. In the preceding years, Dragon Day had doubled as a rally for activists expressing opinions on the Vietnam War. That year, however, architects displayed a “neutral commitment,” The Sun reported. Students toned down the unruliness and marched with an attitude “not anti-war or pro-war, just pro-involvement.”

In response to problems at Dragon Day ’89, the University decided to withdraw its support for the festivities in 1990. That year, however, first-year architects showed their resilience and built a dragon independent of any formal endorsement.

In the early morning, students assembled on the shore of Beebe Lake and waded in to cast off what is believed to be Cornell’s first aquatic dragon. Assembled of a wooden frame, nylon coverings and supported by 4 floats and 60 empty kegs, the amphibious beast glided triumphantly out of the lake, past the Engineering Quad and onto the Arts Quad where it went up in flames like every one of its predecessors.

The college renewed its formal support for the day in 1993, in an attempt to regulate Dragon Day chaos, but was unable to repress the long-established rivalry between first-year architecture and engineering students.

To compete with their more artfully-endowed peers, engineering students have adopted the custom of attempting to derail the dragon from its customary path to the Arts Quad. In 1998, for instance, engineers built a fortress on their quad to prevent the dragon from entering, and launched 700 water balloons at the unsuspecting architects. The Phoenix Society of the engineering school often tries to trump the architects by building its own creations, such as the giant black cobra it displayed in front of Phillips Hall in 2002. “It’s a matter of pride in engineering,” Bryan Armitage ’98 told The Sun that year. “The whole idea is to make the day a lot of fun on both sides while harassing each other a bit.”

By the time the ashes on the Arts Quad have cooled, freshmen architects have gained an invaluable experience on several levels. Beyond the fun and games, the students have learned a tremendous amount about working with a team of architects to design, plan, and build a structure.

“Building a dragon is a lot like making architecture,” Hubbell said. “I guess you could say it is emblematic of how architects work.”

Moreover, “the communal act of designing, making and producing something on a fairly large scale as an introductory experience,” Ovaska said, “is valuable in its own right.”

Whether valued for its practical nature, its ability to inspire enthusiasm on campus, or its tendency to foster incredible camaraderie, all agree that Dragon Day is one of Cornell’s most treasured customs. “We do worry about the health and safety of students,” said Hubbell. “But when you look at it as a rite of spring that’s more than a 100 years old, it’s a pretty amazing thing.”
Archived article by Josh GoldmanSun Staff Writer